{"id":16196,"date":"2016-04-08T14:09:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T18:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.constructionspecifier.com\/?p=16196"},"modified":"2016-04-08T14:09:50","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T18:09:50","slug":"researchers-create-tougher-plastic-with-renewable-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionspecifier.com\/researchers-create-tougher-plastic-with-renewable-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers create tougher plastic with renewable content"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Researchers
Researchers from the Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE\u2019s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are shaking things up with a new thermoplastic that is both tough and sustainable.<\/span>
Photo courtesy ORNL<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Researchers from the Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE\u2019s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have invented a stronger thermoplastic made up of 50 percent renewable content.<\/p>\n

The researchers created a solvent-free production process interconnecting equal parts of nanoscale lignin dispersed in a synthetic rubber matrix to produce a meltable, moldable, ductile material that is at least 10 times tougher than acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). They replaced styrene with lignin\u2014a brittle, rigid, polymer that, with cellulose, forms the wood cell walls of plants.<\/p>\n

The resulting thermoplastic, known as acrylonitrile butadiene lignin (ABL), is recyclable. It can be melted three times and still perform well. The results could bring cleaner, cheaper, raw materials to diverse manufacturers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new ORNL thermoplastic has better performance than commodity plastics like ABS,\u201d said Amit Naskar, co-inventor. \u201cWe call it a green product because 50 percent of its content is renewable and technology to enable its commercial exploitation would reduce the need for petrochemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

To produce an energy-efficient method of synthesizing and extruding high-performing thermoplastic elastomers based on lignin, the ORNL team needed to answer several questions:<\/p>\n